Why Google Dropped My Page Rank To Three? An SEO Lesson Learned!

By Raj | Jul 29, 2008

Earlier I shared with you readers the joy of MT Herald gaining Google Page Rank four within four months from the date of inception and said one of the key factors to be Google friendly is to gain one-way, inbound links wherever possible than reciprocal links and that this could be achieved by submitting your homepage to directories which offer free, one-way links (Get those list of directories which offer free, one-way, inbound links from Directory Critic, One Way Text Link, Our Totally Free Stuff, Free Directory List) and that this is a great advantage in link building for a blog without spending a single cent.

Google terms each link pointing to a site as a vote in favor of the site in creating a Google-friendly site. Hence I was submitting to all these directories and was getting links to the tune of around 700 to my homepage alone and in this saga of Google, the existence of such directories itself is purely to gain links rather than benefiting any surfer.

However, the latest update of Google’s PageRank has proved my theory to be wrong in terms of being Google friendly as Google termed it as an artificial boost (rather than somebody linking you being fond of you) and decreased Page Rank of MT Herald by a point to three from four. Unfortunately, I didn’t give due importance (or was ignorant rather) to the para in Google webmaster help center, where it states:

Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines.

Similarly Google webmaster guidelines states:

Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

Neither I was selling links nor writing any paid reviews. I wasn’t buying any links either. Indeed I was very cautious in driving Google bots putting a “no follow” to almost all outgoing links except very good domains like of UNICEF and UN or .gov or .edu domains but I was ignorant about these two warnings. So the dropped Page Rank can fully be attributed to this deed of gaining links.

Anyway, past is past, I can’t stop those requests or links already done but I can definitely stop further requests for links and I have removed the restrictions to the outbound links also. Let me try to gain Google’s confidence by stopping to submit to those directories and start concentrating producing quality content as this is the message that I learnt from the recent Page Rank drop and as Google is the current monopolist on the web having 90% of search engine traffic and until some other search engine like Cuil (A recent venture by former Google employees. Maybe these former employees know the secrets inside Google) arises as a tough competitor to Google, I have to dance with Google!

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7 Responses to “Why Google Dropped My Page Rank To Three? An SEO Lesson Learned!”

SG on August 3rd, 2008, at 2:44 am said:

Hmm based on your experience, it means that Google doesn’t like it when you submit to directories? or it is still allowed however you should not submit to a lot in such a short span of time (gradually submit them? )?

Raj on August 3rd, 2008, at 4:14 pm said:

@Synergy Global International: That’s what I’m puzzled with.

joy on March 4th, 2009, at 6:32 am said:

my page rank drop from three to zero, and i’m still wondering why it happened? i didn’t do anything to my site.

Raj on March 4th, 2009, at 7:28 am said:

The possible causes of your Page Rank drop can be attributed to:
1.) You might have sold links from your blog without adding no follow tag.
2.) You might have done paid reviews without adding a nofollow tag to the links.
3.) A warning bell might have got triggered to Google that you are buying links.
(With reference to the above said three points, see detailed explanation by Matt Cutts, Head, Web Spam Team, Google, on why paid posts should not affect search engines.)
4.) Participation in any link exchange schemes.
5.) Amassing huge amount of inbound links by any other artificial means.
6.) Duplicate content scraped from other sites.
7.) Linking from your site to bad neighborhood like pornographic or medicine sites either with your knowledge or without.
8.) Hacked site or malicious softwares or codes found on your site.
9.) Any other aspect detrimental to a surfer.
10.) Any other technical glitch on the part of Google as admitted by John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google, on Google support forum, a case something similar to yours.

Analyze where you might have gone wrong. Rectify your mistakes and submit reconsideration. You should bounce back with the next Page Rank update.

Even a change in PageRank algorithm could downgrade your Page Rank which is not your mistake. So keep trying until you are back to normal. Good Luck.

Dr. Blunt on July 14th, 2010, at 4:37 am said:

Google just reduced my dental insurance site — http://www.californiadentalinsurance.com from #2 to #42 basically putting me out of the individual dental business. I have a seasoned site since 2000 and paid the domain thru 2018. I have not made anychanges and the web site sells exactly what it says. Anybody with some helpful tips?
Dr. Blunt

Raj on July 14th, 2010, at 6:54 am said:

I could see a PageRank of zero for your site’s homepage. Was it better than that before?

Did you indulge in buying/selling links with relation to your site? If no, your problem may be a technical glitch which may get rectified in due course.

However, if you had indulged in blackhat SEO techniques such as manipulating the incoming/outgoing links, I doubt an easy solution is available unless you rectify those mistakes.

Rob Joss on October 26th, 2010, at 1:55 pm said:

Since last week i have the same problem, from 1500 visitors a day to 100 / 200 a day … and income of adsense dropped also a lot. i dont know if it will come again “naturally”, or do i have to do something?

regards
RJ